Light infantry (Age of Empires III)

Light infantry is a tag from the class system of Age of Empires III, being a subtype of infantry. It was introduced in Knights of the Mediterranean. In short, light infantry are a group of units that counter heavy infantry, light ranged cavalry and ranged shock infantry. In the game files, they are referred to as AbstractSkirmisher. It includes three subtags:

• Foot archers
• Rifle infantry (except counter-skirmishers)
• Hand skirmishers
• Artillery trooper

Caroleans have a negative multiplier against light infantry.

Hand skirmisher

Hand skirmishers are similar to other light infantry, and counter heavy infantry, but unlike those, they are focused on melee combat (AbstractMeleeSkirmisher in the game files). This tag was introduced in The African Royals.

The following units are light infantry that also have the hand skirmisher tag:

• Dahomey Amazon
• Sudanese Dervish

The following units are hand skirmishers, but do not have the light infantry tag:

• Mansabdar Urumi
• Urumi Swordsman

Variants

The following units are neither under the foot archer or rifle infantry tag but are light infantry:

• Chakram Thrower
• Fire Thrower

Artillery trooper

Artillery troopers are long-ranged infantry with ranged attack dealing siege damage (AbstractAbusGun in the game files). Also, they are rifle infantry. This tag was introduced in update 23511.

The following units are artillery troopers:

• Abus Gunner
• Cannoneer

Technologies

The technologies that affect units with the light infantry tag are shown below:

• Schützenfest (light infantry get +1 Line of Sight and range; Mountain Troopers get +3 Line of Sight and range instead)
• Kalthoff Repeaters (light infantry and counter-skirmishers get +0.1 multiplier against light infantry, Royal Huntsmen and Royal Hunters get +0.5 instead)

History

Light infantry refers to two different types of units depending on whether referring to Age of Empires III, to the expansions The WarChiefs and The Asian Dynasties, or to the Definitive Edition after the Knights of the Mediterranean release:

• As tradition in other games of the series, in vanilla Age of Empires III all ranged infantry units that counter heavy infantry and light cavalry with their ranged attacks are considered light infantry.
• In The WarChiefs and The Asian Dynasties, light infantry constitutes infantry that emulate cavalry. The units formerly tagged as light infantry are no longer considered as such and do not possess the tag anymore, being tagged as just infantry and ranged infantry; they're differentiated from the Musketeer-type of units which have the heavy infantry tag.
• In the Definitive Edition, to avoid confusion, light infantry was renamed to shock infantry, although it is still referred as AbstractLightInfantry in game files. With update 13088, the AbstractCoyoteMan tag was altered to display as "Hand Shock Infantry" in the UI and was retroactively applied to the Tiger Claw and the Rattan Shield, while the Tiger Claw had its infantry tag removed. With update 23511, traditional units labeled as light infantry in roles and functions were placed under the foot archer and rifle infantry tags.
• In The African Royals, with update 43871, the icon for hand shock infantry was added.
• After the release of Knights of the Mediterranean, the light infantry tag was added, including all foot archer and rifle infantry units, making the class a return as a real class in the counter system. The readded class probably came back for accommodating new archetypes of units, like the Schiavone that counters light infantry.